Democratic debate a waste of time

March 4, 2008|Lorraine Wagner, Davie

The Feb. 26 debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was a waste of time. Non-issues such as health care were one topic.

Talk of health care reform is a "decoy issue," as nothing will be changed until we find a way to stop the insurance and drug companies from bilking us. It used to be that people were put before profit. Now profits are put before people.

Meanwhile, we're at their mercy. Dennis Kucinich had it right (Canadian-style, single-payer health care), but he got shoved off the stage by big media and the corporations that run the show. Then John Edwards threw in the towel, sad to say.

Both Hillary and Barack hedged on the North American Free Trade Agreement. The way I see it, we have more of an illegal employer problem than an illegal immigrant problem. Corporations and businesses want cheap labor and have replaced the American middle class with a labor pool of working poor from Mexico and elsewhere. Then they outsource and move companies overseas to avoid paying U.S. corporate taxes. Hence, business does not do what's best for society and is destroying the middle class in the process. We are the "shrinking serfs," while corporations are the kings.

Hillary and Barack didn't have much of substance to say regarding our occupation of Iraq. Neither would call for an immediate pull-out now - or in the near future. It will be business as usual for the military-industrial complex, i.e., Halliburton, Bechtel, also Blackwater, etc. John McCain's 100 years of war won't be enough for the greedy. It never is.